Skills Tip: Mastering Trigger Control with The Wall Drill
Trying to improve your accuracy? This is for you.
Accurate and safe shooting begins with understanding how to manipulate the trigger effectively. Trigger manipulation will affect and direct where the shot will travel. An inconsistent or incorrect squeeze of the trigger will almost always result in you being off target - at best.
One valuable tool to refine this skill is: The Wall Drill.
To master trigger manipulation, and improve accuracy, we are going to discuss how to use the wall drill to practice.
Trigger manipulation will depend on the type of firearm you are shooting and the type of shooting you are doing. Today we will focus on rifles and handguns.
These triggers tend to function similarly, they have some slack to them, with a fairly distinct break point that will fire. In order to have an accurate and consistent trigger press you want to master your knowledge of your trigger.
The first thing you’ll need to do is remove (or take up) the slack. Essentially apply consistent and even pressure to the trigger until it begins to get stiffer and stiffer, approaching “the wall” (the stiffest point of the trigger pull - not the drywall in your home!).
Once you discover the location of “the wall”, you need to continue to apply consistent and even pressure, without disrupting your sight picture. The goal is to maintain precise control throughout the entire trigger pull.
Common Errors
Jerking, slapping, or preemptively trying to manage the recoil of the shot can cause the gun to move off target. As you keep applying pressure eventually the gun will fire as the trigger breaks. This moment is key, try not to anticipate the recoil or flinch or jerk the trigger to maintain the sight picture.
This is slightly counterintuitive: allow yourself to be surprised by when the gun fires. With practice you will become used to the moment or fire, and you also won’t be anticipating it.
Dry Fire Drill
A great way to practice your trigger pull and consistently find the wall is a dry fire drill called The Wall Drill. First, for this to be a dry fire drill make sure your firearm is unloaded or that you are using dummy ammunition.
Get into a good stance and establish a solid sight picture with whatever firearm you are using. The goal of this drill is to find the wall and get as close as possible to breaking the trigger without actually letting it break.
While aiming at the target, take up the slack in the trigger until you reach the wall. At this point, you should feel resistance but not break the shot. Run a few repetitions (reps), 5-10, before you allow yourself to break the trigger. Ensure you do not allow the sights to move.
If the trigger breaks before you intend it to, or you let the sights move, you have failed the drill. Try again!
Benefits Of This Drill
This drill will help you develop muscle memory of trigger manipulation, while also keeping you focused on sight alignment throughout the trigger press, allowing for better consistency and accuracy in shooting. An added benefit of all dry fire training is flinch reduction.
Anytime you manipulate a trigger there is a risk of flinching, but if you get your brain used to the idea of a trigger press with no noise and recoil, that is exactly what it will expect when you fire a live round reducing the chance of a flinch.
Importance Of Building Proficiency
Building your proficiency in handling, and your ability to shoot accurately will only make you a more effective and safe shooter. Safety in firearms is always touted as being the number one rule, but it must be backed up by practice. Perfect practice makes perfect execution, so be intent and deliberate in your training!
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